Economist Paul Krugman’s column of two days ago explains why Barack Obama needs to be very bold in his proposals to fix the economy.
To put it another way, if Obama proposes to do more than we find out that we need, he can always cancel some of his proposals. On the other hand, if we eventually find out that we need more than he has proposed, it may be too late to add these items by the time we find that we need them.
When it comes to having a few extra resources, I always believe it is better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.
In the military sphere, this would be equivalent to the Powell doctrine of having an overwhelming force to accomplish your mission.
My freshman advisor at MIT, the noted strobe photography expert Dr. Harold Edgerton, once said in a lecture, “If 5,000 volts is needed to fire this xenon flash lamp, then 10,000 volts will surely fire it.”